Agar-agar-cascara product and process of making same.



as fo NE STATE PATE- @FFICE.

KARL DIETERIQH, OF HELFENBERG, GERMANY.

AGAR-AGAR-GASGABA PRODUCT AND PROCESS OF MG SAME.

' Application filed Qctober '10, 1906.

'it is not to be implied that they are necessarily limited to an agar-agar-cascara product and process. On the contrary their scope is to be determined b the claims as interpreted the light of t e specification and the art.

The utility of the new product is forexample its use as a medicine or remedy for con;'

stip ation. I Y

he process for making the improved product will now be described and after that the nature of the product obtained, and the theory of its action, together with its advantages over other products in which the in redients are differently combined.

esoribing now the process of making the new product, I will give an'exact formula for conducting the process with agar-agar and cascara, it beingunderstood that the formula given is in the nature ofa, preferred formula and process, and accordingly that the invention is not to be deemed limited to. the (precise features of the process as outline r In the first place the agar-agar em loyed may be the long straw-like form commerce; this agar-agar, it will be understood is in dry, ungelatmized condition. Starting j with kilos of agar-agar straws, they are broken up into fragments and saturated with- 1 of absorbent surface such as glass. J consisting of cascara in 18 preferably non- A solution 2 kilos of-aqueous extract of kilos of water is then pre ared. This solution is added to the glycerlze agaragar referably in three successive portions ilows. The first third of the cascarasolution is thoroughly mixed with the gllycerized agar-agar and after the cascara as become absorbed into the agar-agar the material is dried in an oven at about 0. Next the second third of the cascara solution is mix 'd' with and absorbed into the dry agar-agar material and then dried at glycerin on a Specification of Letters Patent.

alimentary tract from the can be saved since the dose can Patented Aug. 25, 1908.

Serial No. 338,231. (Specimena) 40 C. Finally the last third of the cascara solution is added and after absorption into the agaragar material the same while still moist is forced through a sieve to give the material a rod-like form after which being finally dried at 40C. the rods are broken up, milled or granulated into flakes or grains.

As stated the absorption of the cascara into the agar-agar is preferably conducted in stages the advantage being that impregnation is much more thorough 'than if the entire cascara solution be added in one operation.

. The resulting product in the form of dry flakes, kernels or granules, or aggregations of these into tablets and the like, contains the cascara so intimately combined or impregnated through the substance of the agaragar that in spite of its extreme bitterness the cascara gives no substantial taste when the product is chewed reparatory to swallowing. As a still furt er result of the intimacy with which the ingredients are combined in the new product, said product taken into the alimentary tract does not yield up its cascara to any substantial extent until it has assed into the large intestine or bowel. his means that the new product delivers substantially its full charge of cascara into the bowel without loss by absor tion in the stomach or other arts of the a imentary tract; It therefore ocalizes the cascara to the place where alone its stimulating uality is eflective to produce defecation an thereby saves all rior parts of the urden of useless excitation such as takes place when uncombined or ordinar cascara extract is taken as a laxative. hus the following advantages among others may be now summarized as belonging to the new product due to the intimacy with which the cascara is combined with the agar-agar. First, the product is made rac'tlcally tasteless; second, the actionor the cascara is localized to the large intestine or bowel; third, theprgans ahead of the bowel are not burdened by the escape of cascara; and fourth, since none of the cascara is wasted, because substantially all of it is delivered intact to the bowel, cascara be limited to the exact quantity required to cause defecation and no excess supply need be administered to provide for loss by absorption in the other parts of the alimentary tract such as occurs in taking uncombined cascara. The reason why the cascara in the new product is tasteless and why it is delivered intact to the bowel may be ascribed to the protective action of the agar-agar which the cascara impregnates.

By way of further explanation it may be said that the dry, ungelatinized agar-agar material in its passage through the alimentary tract gradually absorbs more and more liquid and so becomes more and more wet through its substance, and of greater volume as it proceeds. The gelatinizing process however is a slow one and the agar-agar material only becomes wet through and through after it has reached the large intestine. It is here only that the articles of agar-agar material assume their a1 condition of completely gelatinized, soft, thoroughly wet, slippery masses of largely increased bulk. Becoming wet through and through for the first time in the lar e intestine, the cascara is there completely elivered by the material to act with its full force to excite the Walls of the bowel to peristaltic action.

Not only is the new product such that the agar-agar works in combination with the cascara to protect it from loss in the mouth and so to prevent it from being tasted and further to protect it from substantial loss in the alimentary. tract ahead of the bowel, but

even after the ingredients havebecome as explained dissociated in the bowel, they still continue to act in combination, this timeto produce defecation. To explain this last statement, it should be prefaced that in habitually constipated persons it is found that the feces in the bowel are as a rule markedly deficient in moisture to the extent of being dry and hard, and are of correspondingly diminished bulk as compared with normal feces. This abnormal condition of the feces is restored to normal by the wet, slippery, swollen particles or masses of gelatinized' agar-a ar, which there mix with the dry, hard, eficient feces to 've them the moist, sli pery quality as wel as the bulk of normail feces. Moreover the cascara having been liberated as previously explained, now sets up peristaltic action which becomes, due to the presence of the gelatinized masses of agar-agar in the bowel,

highly effective to evacuate the contents of the bowel, for without the gelatinized agaragar in the feces, the peristaltic action induced by the cascara would be acting at a great mechanical disadvantage because in the first .place the deficient feces would not fill the cross-section of the bowel and in the second place, being dry and hard, they would resent much frictional resistance towards eing forced through the bowel. In

seesaw short the cascara and the agar-agar act in combination to cause defecation; the former by exciting the muscular activity of the bowel, and the latter by giving the feces the normal condition or qualitybest suited for peristaltic action to work upon.

It may be noted here that the agar-agar ingredient of the product as administered is in a dry or ungelatinous condition. This is essential because agar-agar in the form of a jelly, decoction or soup is absorbed on its way to thelarge intestine and if employed would defeat the result obtained by the product herein which is to have the material carryin the cascara to be undigestible so that it wil arrive in the bowel in a solid condition where giving up its cascara or laxative material, it will function under peristaltic action to push forward the feces.

' Thus it will be noted that the product herein comprises an agar-agar ingredient and a cascara in edient. The agar-agar has the property of slowly gelatinlzing in water,

saliva, gastric and other digest ve fluids at r body tern eratures without liquefaction and accordingly arrives in the bowel substantiall without loss and has a wet, slippery, swo len, solid condition. The cascara in edient consists of a laxative material.- his material is so intimately combined with the agar-agar material and said material is of such a nature that the delivery of the laxative is practically localized to the large intestine.

I do not claim broadly as vmy invention any and all sorts of mixtures of agar-agar like substanc "with a laxative, but on the contrary limitimy invention to a species of said generic mixtures or products (and to the process of making same) wherein the agar agar like material has its substance irnplregnated with the laxative.

aying thus described my invention, what lf claim is:

, 1.. A dry product adapted to be taken as an internal remedy, comprising ungelatinized agar-agar having its substance impregnated with cascara.

2 A product adapted to be taken as an internal remedy consisting of dry, granular material made uplof ungelatinized agar-agarv impr nated wi cascara.

dry product adapted to be taken as.

an internal remedy, comprising .ungelatinized agaragar having its substance impregnated with a laxative.

4. A process comprising in combination,

until absorption 5 internal remedy,

agar-agar having its substance impregnated eeegeor (Q,

successive treatments with an aqueous solution of cascara to get absorption thereof, and drying after each cascara treatment. 6. A product adapted to be taken as an comprising ungelatinized with cascera and glycerin.

7. A process comprising in combination,

treating ungelatinized agar-agar With glyc- 10 erin, subjecting the glycerized agar-agar to a to this specification 1n the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

I KARL nrnrnrircn. In presence ofvPAUL E. ScHrLLrNe, PAUL. AREAS. 

